>> reporter: hello, everyone. i'm john berman. welcome back to cnn's team coverage of the aftermath of the bombings here in boston at the end of the boston marathon. let's bring you up to speed on all that's p haing right now because there are a number of developments. the city of boston, goes without saying, in shock this morning, struggling to bounce back from these deadly twin bombings during the running of the boston marathon, right at the finish line. 4 hours 9 minutes into the race. we just got an update from federal, state and local official. here's what the suffolk county district attorney had to say. let's listen. >> what happened yesterday in boston was an act of cowardice. while there will be an opportunity in the future at the conclusion of this investigation to officially define this act, make no mistake an act of cowardice and of this severity cannot be justified or

explained. it can only be answered. >> reporter: let's talk about the facts that are really coming in every few minutes. here's what we know right now. so far, no arrests have been made. there are no suspects that we know of. and right now no motive that we know of. the toll from the twin bombings continues to rise this morning. three people were killed, at least 176 injured. 176, a brand-new number. the chief surgeon from massachusetts general hospital also spoke just a short time ago. let's listen to what he had to say. >> we are all extremely sad. we are suffering emotionally for what happened to the people of boston and many others. at the same time, we can't feel but proud because the medical community here at mass general responded in an amazing way. suffice it to say that some of

the trauma group that happened to be outside the city jumped on planes immediately in order to come back. >> reporter: fbi director robert mueller and attorney general eric holder arrived at the white house a short time ago to brief the president. we believe that's going on right now. president obama is meeting with his cabinet, his national security team, and counterterrorism advisers. that will happen tonight. the fbi is leading a massive investigation. you know, we can almost see it going on all around us, looking into what may have caused this twin set of bombings. and many people have been questioned. moments ago we heard from a man who witnessed the death of one of the bomb victims. that victim an 8-year-old who was killed. he has been identified as martin richard. his father ran in the marathon. the son was there to give him a hug at the end of the race, and now that family which also has suffered many injuries are in

mourning. cnn's pamela brown is with me now to tell that part of the story. >> john, the witness i spoke with still in a state of shock today. he was 50 to 75 yards from yesterday's explosions. he says there is one image in particular he cannot get out of his head, that of a little boy on the ground right after the second explosion and now he believes that was 8-year-old martin richard. here's what he had to say. >> when you're in such shock you don't know really what you're seeing, and i thought i saw a child laying to the left, and my wife didn't see that as she later told me and i thought perhaps it was clothing or perhaps a limb because there was a man there missing a limb. but it was surreal, and it was -- whoever did it was just the embodiment of evil. it's unbelievable. >> reporter: and you said the bombs were on the ground rather than being -- >> there's no question those bombs were in knapsacks or

something on the ground because the woman whose clothing was melting into her skin was on her legs, the man lost a leg. if that was the child, the child was small. we would have been hit 50 feet away across the street if the bombs were higher. the bomb to the right, 75 yards away, nobody really knew what it was. everybody kind of kept going on for a few seconds. but the one in front of us at starbucks, when that happened, there was no doubt, within a second everybody was running and screaming. >> reporter: what was going through your mind in that moment? >> we didn't know how many bombs there were. i thought that perhaps there were more bombs because there had been two and i was afraid there might be some on our side. i wanted to get my wife out of there. she wanted to get down into the street because timothy, our son, was due, as we thought, to cross at that time. we didn't know if there were other bombs up the street. we couldn't -- we finally got hold of him two hours later.

but we were so excited to be here to the marathon to see our son run, and it's a war zone. >> reporter: is there anything that sort of surprised you? you said you were in such shock you kind of had a different reaction than you might suspect you would in a situation like this. >> i didn't think that i would be calm. and i wasn't calm, i was just in complete shock. when you see bodies around you and limbs, you think in advance that you're going to be just -- you'll melt down. but you really -- you're thinking, trying to move people out of there. i tried to get my wife out of there, but i suppose to her credit she immediately wanted to go down into the street. but you're caught in a dilemma because you know it's terrorism, you're wondering if there's a third bomb to take out first responders and people that are helping. but, you know, this was -- this was designed to maim and kill,

and it did. >> i spoke to michael murphy yesterday. he couldn't even talk to me. he said he felt so sick to his stomach, especially after seeing that little boy on the ground. and what's interesting here, john, as we've heard from so many other witnesses, when they heard the first explosion they thought it was a cannon going on, some sort of celebratory cannon. he said as soon as he heard the second explosioni right across the street from where he was he knew it was an act of terrorism. >> i'm sure it was so hard to talk about. i've talked to doctors and law enforcement officials who have seen a lot of bad things in their day and they have a hard time talking about the carnage they saw yesterday. pamela, thank you very much. >> reporter: we're just getting word into cnn that president obama will make a statement 11:30 a.m. eastern time from the white house briefing room. not sure if it's an update on the investigation, if he has new news. but, again, that statement coming at 11:30 a.m. eastern time.

we will of course bring it to you the second it happens. what happened in boston was terrifying for hundreds who were there at the scene when the bombs went off. it's terrifying to look at the video. cassidy brettler witnessed the terror firsthand. this is what she told cnn. >> i don't know. i mean, honestly, i got home last night about 11:00 and started to break down because i had been holding it in all day. i had been trying to remain composed. on social media and video just portray what was going on and tell my story. but by the time i was trying to fall asleep, it was hitting me, this is real and waking up this morning realizing it isn't a nightmare, it actually happened, and what will be the case today. >> reporter: indeed it did actually happen. there were thousands of people still running the race when those bombs went off. and for the first time, we're seeing what the blast looked like from it a runner's perspective. runners reaching the finish

line, of course one of the things you do these days is take video of yourself crossing the finish line. this time taking video of the bombs, smoke rising into the air. you can see they started running in the opposite direction of the blast, probably a smart thing to do. we just heard from investigators a little over an hour ago. want to listen to this new update from governor deval patrick on the latest developments. listen. >> it's important to clarify that two and only two explosive devices were found yesterday. other parcels, all other parcels, in the area of the blast have been examined, but there are no unexploded bombs. >> reporter: that's a key piece of information you just heard from governor deval patrick. he said two and only two explosive devices were found, and those are the two that went off. they did not find any unexploded devices here. no bombs that did not go off.

right now i want to bring in barbara starr. barbara, you just got some new details on this investigation. what have you just learned? >> well, john, we now know that about 1,000 national guard massachusetts and from other new england states assembling on scene to support local law enforcement and help them out. people have been talking about this as a war zone. literally, john, the u.s. military intelligence working with the fbi, they have years of experience together now from the wars in iraq and afghanistan on assembling the forensics of bomb explosions. what they are looking at is how this bomb was put together. what are the materials used? what was the fuse? what was the detonator? were there any special elements of this bomb that gave it extra lethality? we keep having the conversation about shrapnel. and what they are doing then is going back and seeing if it matches any other forensics that

they may have from attacks either in the united states, europe, or even iraq, afghanistan, pakistan. this is going to help them narrow down if there's any matching information whether it is perhaps domestic terrorism or overseas transnational, if you will, foreign terrorists. it's one of the key factors they look at. this kind of arrangement has been put in place for many years now, and we know that it's one of the things they're working away very hard on, that they hope this will give them essentially the signature of the bomb maker. because bomb makers tend to make their bombs the same way each and every time. if they train other people to make bombs, they train them in their techniques. so finding the signature of this bomb is going to be one of the key elements to move this forward. john? >> reporter: barbara starr, that bomb maker signature is

something that investigators are desperately searching for at this very moment. barbara starr in washington, thanks to you. i should say we've been hearing from doctors at mass general hospital and brigham and women's hospital. they've been telling us what they've been finding as they've been treating patients. it may give a clue to the makeup of the bombs. a doctor at brigham and women's says he's been removing carpenter's nails, also some small metal devices a little bit bigger, he says, than bbs. what that means still remains to be seen. i'm joined by karen greenberg, the director at the center of national security at fordham university law school, also joined by tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director. tom, there's a lot of questions i have here about the bombs. two new pieces of information over the last hour, brand-new. number one, two bombs and two bombs only, just the ones that went off, no unexploded devices.

what does that tell you? >> first of all, john, it tells you that without having unexploded devices they're going to have to piece together the ones that did explode. that's going to take longer than being able to reverse-engineer a bomb recovered intact. but, to me, what this very much reminds me -- i was one of the fbi commanders at the summer olympics in atlanta in 1996. i was on duty assisting the commander in the command post when the centennial park bomb went off. and that bomb turned out to be basically a pipe bomb in a backpack. and above it, when the -- the investigators actually had a look at that before it exploded. it had plastic food container and in the container was roofing nails. the fbi was able later in the investigation to trace back to where those nails were made, the particular company that manufactured them, and the line and approximate dates of manufacture to track that back.

so when the doctor earlier this morning says that he's pulled 30 or 40 pieces of shrapnel, carpenter-type nails out of the bodies, it just reminded me very much of the atlanta bombing, that bomb being put together by eric rudolph, now serving in prison for being convicted of that bombing. >> reporter: it's a meticulous level of detail that you can be sure investigators are honing in on right now. carol, we're still not getting any details about who may have carried this out. the pentagon says they have no specific leads, law enforcement agencies we've heard from says they don't know, domestic, foreign, no suspects in custody right now. one thing they did do repeatedly is ask the public for pictures. thet want the public to give any pictures they may have from the scene. what does that tell you? >> well, it tells you several things. i think the first is it tells you that they are open-minded to any strands of information that

might come their way. they didn't have, it seems, complete surveillance from cameras that you might have had, say, in other urban centers like london, like district of columbia. so they are relying on individuals who witnessed things to show them pictures. but i think one of the more interesting things that you just mentioned is that nobody's jumping to conclusions here. there is going to be a logical, rational, forensic evaluation of who put -- what consisted of putting together these bombs, what kinds of materials were used, and it's a notable professionalism that is going on here. it's going on across the discourse, which is that we don't know. nobody does seem to know. until we do know, we don't want to tie it to one or another narrative. there are several strands of violence in america right now. one is international terrorism.

another are lone wolf individuals who have an anger at one form of government or another. another is a sense of domestic terrorism that could be group related or might not be group related. we just don't know. what we do know is that, unfortunately, americans are getting used to more violence in their midst. it is something that law enforcement and the public and public officials are going to have to handle for a long time. >> that's to be sure. karen greenberg, tom fuentess, our thanks to both of you. all morning, every hour there are new developments, on two tracks the investigation we've been talking about but also the victims, the victims of this horrible attack. and there is new information on that front. we heard a short while ago from the chief of trauma surgery at mass general talking about the injuries that he has been seeing. we also got a new count in terms of the number of people who have been injured. poppy harlow has been standing by all morning at brigham and women hospitals doing just

terrific reporting from there bringing us all the latest information. poppy, what's new now? >> reporter: good morning, john. some very critical information just came out of the press conference with doctors from brigham and women's hospital. we know there are 31 patients here at the hospital, 5 in critical condition right now. the news out of this press conference is -- and i'm quoting the doctor here that held the press conference -- no question some of the objects were implanted in the device. why is this key? this is key because there have been many questions over whether or not bb-like pellets or carpenter nails or objects of that sort were purposefully implanted in these bombs to maximize injury, to increase injury. the evidence that this doctor has seen shows us that that is indeed the case. it is not the case in the majority of the patients that were hit by these blasts, but he said that in at least three patients they found small two to three millimeter in diameter

projecti projectiles, also found carpenter nails and those round -- those round objects in one patient had both, other patients just had nails. so the point here being that we now know from the doctors here that there was specific effort made to implant devices that would maximize injury into these bomb blasts. i spoke with the doctors about how resilient the patients have been. one of the doctors told me that the patients when they came in were remarkably stoic, saying that they were almost heroic, doing anything they needed to survive and to get through. in terms of how prepared they were, they said, we don't -- we were very prepared. they were ready. they said that it is never quite like the drill, but they were very prepared for this. so, john, i just want to reiterate, five still in critical condition here, and the

evidence we're seeing now is that some sort of ball bearing type device or bb-like device and carpenter nails were implanted in these bombs and did hit at least three patients that have been treated here, one that has faced an amputation, two at this moment with limbs in jeopardy. that's the way they're putting it at this moment, john. >> reporter: poppy harlow, our thanks to you. poppy just brought us that new piece of crucial information right now, that doctors are saying they are seeing evidence of pieces of metal, shrapnel intentionally placed inside these bombs, carpenter nails many of the doctors are calling them. we know from tom fuentes, former assistant fbi director, that could be crucial. it tells us not only about who made the bombs but could be a key piece of evidence in tracking them down. you may be able to go to the places where these nails are

sold to learn information about who bought them. our thanks to both poppy and tom for that. there is a lot of other news going on in the world right now. let's go to the atlanta and carol costello for that. >> john, thank you. i am carol costello, reporting from atlanta. across the country today americans are pausing to honor the victims of the boston marathon bombings. at the new york stock exchange a moment of silence just before the opening bell. let's take a look at the big board right now. there you see it. you see stocks are up 101 points so it's doing okay. we'll keep an eye on it. other news we're following this morning, gold prices are making a slight rebounds after the biggest sell-off in decades. at last price, $1300 an ounce, the slight upturn comes after it falls in the biggest daily drop ever. analysts say the financial crisis in europe and doubts about the strength of the chinese economy are two of the reasons behind the drop. on the korean peninsula, there are no signs today of any cooling of tensions and now

there's a new threat from north korea that it will not give any advanced warning before any attack on south korea. the threat came in a statement published by north korea's official news agency. at least 40 people are feared dead in iran after a powerful earthquake shook an area near the border with pakistan. at least five dead reported in pakistan. the quake struck an area in southeastern iran. the u.s. geological survey says it had a magnitude of 7.8. this was the scene in karachi, pakistan, just as the quake hit. it was felt as far away as a abu dhabi where buildings shoot for 40 seconds or more. last week another earthquake in southern iran killed at least 37 people. as you heard john berman say, president obama is expected to give some remarks in just about ten minutes, 11:30 eastern time. of course we'll take you there live. we'll take a quick break. we'll have much more from boston and from washington after this. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. >> reporter: welcome back to our coverage of the aftermath of the bombings in boston. i'm john berman. we just got word that president obama will talk in a few minutes from the white house briefing room about the boston bombings.

that is scheduled to happen several minutes from now. our chief political analyst gloria borger is with us from washington. gloria, we heard from the president last night, less than 24 hours, much less. we're hearing from the president again from the briefing room. what do you think the president will say? >> i think what the president is trying to do, really, is keep the american public completely informed. as you know, as well as anyone, john, from being there in boston, there is a tremendous amount of unanswered questions. there might be a lot of fear among the american public, particularly in big cities, particularly in the city of boston. i think it if the president himself can answer any questions about the notion of terrorism and whether this was a one-off incident, whether it was domestic or not, i think those are questions the american people need answered, and i think the president believes that he is the one who ought to be reassuring the american

public that everything is being done to answer these questions and to give the public some of those answers that he can share. >> reporter: he's been meeting over the last several minutes, about an hour now, with bob mueller, as well as attorney general eric hold. later on he's meeting with antiterrorism people. last night president obama did not use the "t" word, didn't say terror or terrorism though the white house staff made crystal clear they believe it was an act of terror. >> sure, the white house staff did. i think there's a distinction here that i think the president was trying to get across, which is, when the word comes from his mouth some people might presume that the country was under a so-called terror attack. i don't think that was the message the president was trying to send. what the president was trying to do was be a little more circumspe circumspect.

of course anytime people like this are attacked, anytime there are bombs, as senator dianne feinstein said last night, it is a terror -- it is a terrorist incident. but we do not know the extent of it. and what i think the president was trying to do was to send a signal that this isn't as if the entire united states of america was under some kind of alert or attack. so i think in being circumspect the message was sent. i think what we're going to hear today from the president is some more information that the american people can digest, that people in boston can digest about the extent of this and what we know from the investigation, that he can in fact tell without endangering an ongoing investigation. >> reporter: i think it's a safe bet that he will to a certain extent put more meat on the bones on the comments he made

last night. the president has multiple roles but two of them are commander in chief and consoler in chief. >> exactly. >> reporter: earlier you brought up one that kind of falls in the middle, which is soother in chief. it's not just important to calm nerves in order to make people feel good. there is a national security reason to make people feel secure. >> right. there's a national security reason. i think people look to the president for information. people look back to the hours after 9/11, for instance, and there was a lot of confusion. i think, you know, you're looking at an entire law enforcement community which has lessons learned since those days, and the lessons learned is tell the american public what they need to know to calm them, to give them information about how to behave, to, in fact, use the american public as a resource. i mean, we heard from law enforcement this morning in boston, send us your pictures,

tell us what you know, tell us what you saw. i think these are, again, all the lessons learned the hard way since 9/11 and since other terrorist incidents where the american public can actually participate in helping to solve these questions that we still have unanswered. and from the president himself, i think you do have the consoler in chief, but you also need to have the commander in chief here, too, you need to have somebody who says, we are working together. we understand what we need to know. we are answering some of these questions. let me explain to you why we don't have all of the answers in a nanosecond, why these things are complex, complicated, and let people know that, in fact, the law enforcement community is working together to figure out just who did this. >> reporter: it really does feel

like there is an extraordinary level of communication and coordination here. for an event like the boston marathon, you have a huge number of security personnel on hand already, not to mention a huge number of medical personnel on the scene already. one of the thing s at play here is the governor of massachusetts, deval patrick, is really a close friend of president obama's, probably the closest friend he has who occupies a governor's mansion. you have to assume that there's an extraordinary level of communication going on right there. >> oh, absolutely. and in the first minutes after the attack one would presume a communication between the president, the fbi, and, yes, the fact that they're friends matters, but also i think there would have been anyway, john. i think the fact that this was the boston marathon and that there is a lot of photographic evidence may mean that they can come to some conclusions sooner rather than later on this.

but, as you know, there are lots of strands to an investigation like this. >> reporter: there certainly are. gloria borger, thank you so much for that. we received a two-minute warning for president obama to speak to us from the briefing room a little bit ago. within the next two minutes we expect to hear from the president. let's go now to our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin who is at the white house. jessi jessica, what do we know about what he might say? >> reporter: hi, john. president obama has just wrapped up a briefing with his top national security team that involved the attorney general, his fbi director, the secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano, the vice president was also in there as well as his national security team and his chief of staff and deputy chief of staff here in the white house. no indication whether they will come out here with him. so far only the president is scheduled to be here. there he is. >> good morning, everybody. i've just been briefed by my national security team, including fbi director mueller,

attorney general holder, secretary napolitano and my counterterrorism and homeland security adviser lisa monaco on the attacks in boston. we continue to mobilize and deploy all appropriate law enforcement resources to protect our citizens and investigate and to respond to this attack. obviously our first thoughts this morning are with the victims, their families and the city of boston. we know that twoook theives of others, including an 8-year-old boy. this was a heinous and cowardly act, and given what we now know about what took place, the fbi is investigating it as an act of terrorism. anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror. what we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack

or why, whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a ma neve owe left individual. that's what we don't yet know, and clearly we're at the beginning of our investigation. it will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened. but we will find out. we will find whoever harmed our citizens. and we will bring them to justice justice. we also know this -- the american people refuse to be terrorized because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness and generosity and love. exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets, the first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives. the men and women who are still

treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world and the medical students who hurried to help saying, when we heard, we all came in. the priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful and the good people of boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it. so if you want to know who we are, what america is, how we respond to evil, that's it. selflessly, compassionately, unafraid. in the coming days we will pursue every effort to get to the bottom of what happened, and we will continue to remain vigilant. i've directed my administration to take appropriate security measures to protect the american people, and this is a good time for all of us to remember that we all have a part to play in alerting authorities if you see something suspicious. speak up. i have extraordinary confidence in the men and women of the fbi, the boston police department,

and the other agencies that responded so heroically and effectively in the aftermath of yesterday's events. i'm very grateful for the leadership of governor patrick and mayor menino, and i know that even as we protect our people and aggressively pursue this investigation the people of boston will continue to respond in the same proud and heroic way that they have thus far. and their fellow americans will be right there with them. thank you very much. and you can expect further briefings from our law enforcement officials as the day goes on. when we have more details, they will be disclosed. what i have indicated to you is what we now know. we know it was bombs that were set off. we know that obviously they did some severe damage. we do not know who did them. we do not know whether this was an act of an organization or an individual or individuals.

we don't have a sense of motive yet. so everything else at this point is speculation. but as we receive more information, as the fbi has more information, as our counterterrorism teams have more information, we will make sure to keep you and the american people posted. thank you very much, everybody. >> a brief, succinct statement from president obama from the white house briefing room, and i think the headline here is really crystal clear. the president says the fbi is investigating these bombings in boston as an act of terror. he used those word words. he says anytime a bomb is used like this it is an act of terror. the president says, what we don't know, however, is if this was carried out by an organization, a terror organization either foreign or domestic, or perhaps by what he called a malevolent individual. the president promised that the united states will find out. jessica yellin at the white house right now.

new words from the president, new words that matter. >> reporter: i thought, john, you're right, the use of the word "m "malevolent" person is interesting choice of words, perhaps leaving the room for the possibility this was the act of a crazy person or we'll have to find out why he chose that particular phrase. it seems to me that's the immediate reason that comes to mind why he would rule out the possibility that this could be anything other than the act of a malevolent person. i will tell you i've spoken to a number of sources inside the government since yesterday about the use of the word "terror" and "terrorism" and why the president may not have used it yesterday and it's being used by so many. bottom line, they say, when it comes to an investigation on the ground, whether it's called terrorism or not it doesn't make much of a difference. it matters to us in the media. it matters to the public in terms of how we feel about it. but when it's an investigation, they proceed the same way terrorism comes into play in how you prosecute these things,

john. >> reporter: it was almost like he was explaining why he was using the word today. he said, anytime bombs go off like they did it is, in fact, an act of terror. gloria, wondering what you think the significance of using that word now is. >> i think it was by way of clarification, really. it's something that, as we spoke about earlier, senator feinstein said yesterday and as jessica was alluding to, anytime you do investigate a bomb that goes off that has been set deliberately it is an act of terror. and i think, to your earlier point about what the president stated very flatly is, we don't know how broad this is or whether it was a single individual or a group. and the other point he made is we do not yet know motive. that's another important thing to consider when you talk about

the phrase "melevolent." we don't know whether this was just some sick person or whether there was political motive, for example. so obviously that's what law enforcement is trying to piece together right now. as we have been reporting all day yesterday, there wasn't any intelligence gathered beforehand that gave anybody any indication that something like this might even be in the air. so i think that, you know, that's got law enforcement kind of scratching its head. >> reporter: indeed. and they're going back, no doubt, over all the information, all the transmissions that happened in the days and weeks before. >> right. >> reporter: jessica, it is interesting. this is a president who often chooses his words extremely carefully on the one hand. it's also a president who famously is no drama obama. he doesn't like unnecessary drama, the lore goes. it may very well be the drama

over the use of the word "terror," not using the word it's just not worth the hassle to him. get it out of the way today and move on with the investigation, which is actually the important thing here. >> reporter: i think you're right and i also think, look, he didn't use the word "terror" yesterday i think for a number of reasons. first of all, when he spoke it was just three hours after the bombs went off. they didn't have all the facts that they have today. they didn't have all the same facts that even governor patrick had when he used the word "terror" this morning or others have all day long today. so it was in the immediate aftermath. second, this administration has stumbled in the aftermath of other potential terror attacks in the past, sometimes waiting too long to speak, sometimes speaking in the case of the bin laden raid and attack and then getting the facts wrong. they've also been accused of leaking national security information unrelated to terror attacks but in general. so i think they're very cautious about the words they use around

these kinds of national security incidents. so they err on the side of caution. they did not want, i'm sure, to attend an ongoing investigation. and when the president says something from the white house, it carries far more weight, as you know, john, than when any other u.s. official says it. so they were being cautious yesterday and immediately after the president spoke i got a call and many others got calls from white house officials saying of course the white house and the president regards this as an act of terror. the white house used the very same words yesterday the president used if in his statement today, saying this is an act of terror, but they wanted to wait and see if the investigation was a terrorist investigation. so sort of parsing when it came to a term of art regarding the investigation. with more information, the president now much more comfortable saying indeed it is a terrorist investigation, john. >> reporter: jessica yellin, excellent points. our thanks to you. gloria borger, thanks to you as

well. again, headlines from the president's brief statement just minutes ago, the fbi is investigating these bombings, this attack in boston as an act of terror. the president says, what we don't know is if this terror was committed by a domestic or foreign organization, he says, or perhaps by a malevolent individual. we're following two tracks here, the investigation as to who might have done this, then the recovery of all those victims. we have brand-new information about the plight and recovery of 176 people who are now injured in this attack. what are they doing to keep these people healthy and get them safe? once again, we have new information from dr. sanjay gupta when we come back.

>> reporter: it is no exaggeration as all to say that treating the boston bombing victims has been a matter of life or death for dozens of doctors, nurses and other medical workers here in boston. dr. vivikshaw was actually running in the boston marathon yesterday. he finished the race,

immediately before those bombs went off, and what did he do immediately after that? he looked to see if the people around him were okay. he joins me right now here not more than two blocks from where the bombings happened. dr. shaw, tell me what that was like yesterday. >> i think initially myself and all the other runners weren't sure whether it was a firework gone bad or something that was supposed to happen. then after the second explosion went off, we knew something was wrong because all the spectators and fans started running away from us. we were just about to finish. so i -- my whole family was on that side where the explosion had gone off so i start running towards where the bombs had gone off to check on my family and to see if there was anything i could do to help. >> reporter: i think it's an important thing to point out, the boston marathon is a family event, family day, marathon monday, patriots day, so many families come together to watch, so many kids there to support their parents. tragically, as we know, so many victims in this case, the wounded, are children.

we know one young boy,s 8 years old, was killed. you went to check on your family to make sure they were okay right away. you also looked at all the people wounded around you. what was that like? >> i mean, it's nothing that you can ever describe. in all of my medical training i've never seen anything like the amount of trauma that i saw yesterday on the sidewalks there. >> reporter: you heard the president a short while ago not talk about just the bad but also the good. you say you've never seen that much trauma, but i imagine you've also never seen that much support, doctor after doctor, nurse after nurse, so many people there on the ground to help immediately. >> absolutely. you know, i thought i would be one of the first people there because i was 25 yards from the finish line when the bombs went off. by the time i got there, there were so many first responders and volunteer physicians, it was -- i've never seen anything like that in terms of the quickness of the response to that tragedy. >> reporter: i have to believe there's no question that saved countless lives.

we're joined also by dr. sanjay gupta standing by at brigham and women's hospital. he is an expert on trauma care, an expert on so much. sauj sanjay, thanks for joining us. these explosions happened within eyesight of a medical tent where there were so many medical personnel around to help. >> no question. i can tell you, you know, sort of picking up the story there, we're outside one of the largest level one trauma centers here. there were nine different hospitals patients were taken to. just to give you an idea, within 15 minutes after the explosions patients starting ariffing. it was quick. i just talked to the doctors inside. within 60 minutes, that proverbial golden hour, all the patients that were coming here had arrived. there were 31 patients, 15 were admitted here, 9 of them requiring surgery. there are hundreds of people on the surgical staff here, they have 42 operating rooms, they

immediately cleared seven rooms, started taking care of the patients. it all happened they quickly. they also confirmed, john, you may know this by now, in these types of injuries you often see a lot of debris, shrapnel-type wounds, but they did confirm now that the type of shrapnel that they saw could not have just been debris lying around but rather carpenter nails and bb-like objects as they were described they found. and doctors are confident now that those were actually within the devices and intended to be part of the injury that was sort of seen here. also at children's hospital, as you may know, john, ten patients were taken there, boston children's. two were adults, eight children. three remain in the hospital, two in critical condition. but many of the patients are being discharged. a little bit of good news there, john. >> reporter: all right, it dr. sanjay gupta, dr. shah, thank you for being with us.

thank you for your service yesterday looking after those people who were hurt at the conclusion of that race. thank you. appreciate it. so much information coming in here on the investigation, on the recovery. we will give you the newest highlights when we come back. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] this is a reason to look twice. this is a stunning work of technology. the 2013 lexus es and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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patients may experience slow heart rate. free trial offer for them. nurses to talk to for you. visit exelonpatchoffer.com. ♪ welcome back to boston, everyone, cnn's live coverage of aftermath of the bombings at the boston marathon. one of the hallmarks of the great city, it's a sports town. obsession with sports teams here. the boston marathon is one of the highlights of the sports year here. we are getting a look just now at the new cover from "sports illustrated" that will hit the newsstands today. i want you to take a look at this. it's one word "boston" in photos, in words. "boston" a picture of someone on

the ground. this is the older man, i believe 78, knocked down by the explosion. he got up, finished that race. i think that's important. an important message of perseverance and resilience with this city on the cov or of "sports illustrated" today. really is a remarkable picture there. moments ago, president obama spoke out on the bombings calling the attacks heinous and cowardly. he also, for the very first time, used the word "terror" the fbi is investigating it as an ability of terror. all resources are being used to hunt down those responsible. joining us, terrorism analyst karen greenberg, director of the center of national security at fordham and cnn analyst and former fbi director tom fuentes. the information coming in over the last several minutes from doctors at various hospitals, say as they are treating pati t

patients they are seeing signs of metal devices put in the bombs, carpenter nails, seeing things, pieces of metal that may be bigger than bbs now. what does that mean in terms of the investigation? what does that tell us about the potential bomber here? does it point you toward domestic, foreign, an organization or perhaps just as what the president called, a malevolent individual? >> i'd like to say, all of the talking heads that discuss this incident and indents like it, if your experience and expertise is middle east terrorism it has hallmarks of al qaeda or middle east. if experience is domestic groups and bombings that occurred here it has hallmarks of domestic terrorists like eric rudolphs in the 1996 summer olympic bombings. i've been to both. i've run bomb scenes in iraq and u.s. it has hallmarks of domestic and international.

you can see either side of that. the roofing nails is a -- the carpenter nails, as they've been described by the doctor, is significant. in the atlanta bombing in 1996, roofing nails were put in a plastic food container put next to the pipe bomb in a knapsack, when it exploded roofing nails went out and the one woman that was killed by the bomb itself was hit with a roofing nail and it killed her. the other fatalities and awe journalist who had a heart attack running to the scene. the woman was killed by a roofing nail. the fbi was able to track those nails to where they were manufactured, what was significant was that there was a defect at the plant so that it made a certain run of nails unique which were trackable to where they were sold. again that provided additional evidentiary and lead value in the investigation. so the embedded shrapnel, embedded in the bomb itself, that has been removed by the doctors from the victims, could

be very significant in helping track down where the components were obtained to put those bombs together. >> i want to talk a little bit about the calendar here. you know it was a few years ago, i was in boston covering the boston marathon when the virginia tech shootings happened. oklahoma city, the bombings there happened in april, roughly around this date, april 19th. waco, april 19th. kol lom b columbine, april 20th. the attacks seem to happen. is this something investigators will be looking at? >> i think they'll look at everything. i think they'll look at patterns that may have to do with chronology, patterns that have to do with the type of device used. they'll look at patterns in terms of locations and choice of locations. and so not one thing is going to be depositive. everything will be put into the mix and they'll talk about it. what's really interesting about this, and that you have to

notice, it's something that tom talked about, is the nature of the resilience of how the professionals are responding to this. you know we know president obama, as they know no drama obama president, the severity of this and tragedy of this have not gone unexamined but there isn't the hysteria that we might have worried about. i think one thing you have to say, we know about the carpenter nails, for example, now that law enforcement and public officials have been keeping the public informed since this incident happened. they may not tell us every detail of what chronological picture they are put together, whether it's a domestic event, international event, event that combines domestic and international, with an individual or somebody in a network because they are looking at everything. eventually they will put the pieces together. it's going to take time. but they're keeping us informed and that's a very important part

of the dialogue that we're having now. >> karen greenberg, tom fuentes, thanks to both of you. response helps with the recovery and investigation. that's what we're doing now at this minute. thanks for watching special coverage of the bombings here in boston continues after this break.

welcome to "around the world" i'm suzanne malveaux. >> i'm michael holmes. >> it was just less than 24 hours ago that runners were crossing the finish line at boston marathon when back-to-back explosions turned an end zone into what looke